The irony of Pilatus being in prison on the cusp of Easter.
Barabbas must be pissing himself and Judas can feel the noose around his neck.
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BONĠU MALTA – MEMORIAL CLEARED (AGAIN)
The situation is not desperate. Thousands flock to Spinola Bay to drink and revel. The memorial has been cleared (again) because someone somewhere has decided that we have a collective need to forget and it is his duty to help us do so. Political appointees and apparatchiks everywhere will once again deem it necessary to denigrate the acts of remembrance and will drum the following mantra into your head – this is the time to make hay, the sun is shining. All the while the law is made an ass and the safeguards of real freedom are broken down.
Remember, remember the 16th of October,
A car bomb, impunity and plot
We see no reason,
Why systemic treason,
Should ever be forgot.
#justice #daphnecrauanagalizia #impunity
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On Memorials
What was cleared last night was not Daphne’s memorial. What was cleared was the reminder that justice is failing, it was the reminder of a rebellion against impunity, a reminder that not all of society is prepared to keep their eyes, ears and mouths shut.
There will eventually be a time and place to discuss an eventual memorial to Daphne but this is not that time.
This is the time to return the candles, the messages and the photos that spell out clearly that the present political system operating in an ever dwindling space of rule of law will just not do.
There are crooks everywhere.
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Jan Kuciak
The following is a google translation of the article by Peter Bardy, Chief Reporter on Aktuality.sk, the online investigative journal for which Jan Kuciak worked before being brutally murdered in his own home along with his girlfriend. The translation is not perfect but the meaning comes across clearly. Sadly it is a familiar message for us Maltese. It drives home an additional truth: that the fight against corruption and the abuse of power is one that very evidently transcends borders and languages. It is a clear call for a European Civil Society that must rebuild this Europe and re-connect with notions of democracy. From the Atlantic to the Urals from the North Sea to the Mediterranean…. no one is exempt from this battle.
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They murdered the man who wanted to make Slovakia a better place to live.
Today is one of the worst days in my life. They murdered our colleague Jan Kuciak – a good man, a friend, a guy who did his job to make us live better. In order to uncover the curse and injustice. Not to be famous or rich. Together we believed that we can help that place on the map where we live.
That the company will change for the better when we write about fraudsters, thieves, corrupt. We really believed it. Really very.
They murdered his girlfriend. A girl who was beside her partner at the wrong time: when they came to murder him.
You read these lines and you do not know how much sadness is today in our editorial office. Something has happened that no one has allowed. Press the trigger and murder a man you do not even know why, because he wants to write about you?
Still on Wednesday last week, we and Jan Kuciak laughed and are not here today.
Thank you to all those who are standing on this day with us and the family of murdered young people who did not do anything wrong. Our thoughts point to John, his friend Martine, to families and loved ones.
Today is one of the saddest days in my life. Recognizing why Janko Kuciak has done journalism, we know that it is our duty to continue with it. Continue to work and believe that the police will be able to remove the murderer or murderers, or the orders of the murder of people whom we will not forget to die.
Rest in Peace.
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Aversus a Musis
Neque enim quisquam est tam aversus a Musis, qui non mandari versibus aeternum suorum laborum facile praeconium patiatur. Themistoclem illum, summum Athenis virum, dixisse aiunt, cum ex eo quaereretur, quod acroama aut cuius vocem libentissime audiret: “Eius, a quo sua virtus optime praedicaretur.” Itaque ille Marius item eximie L. Plotium dilexit, cuius ingenio putabat ea quae gesserat posse celebrari. (Cicero, Pro Archia 20)
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(Translation)
“There is no one so averse to the Muses that he would not readily submit to having an eternal monument of his own labors made in verse. They say that Themistocles, the chief man in Athens, when he was asked what entertainment or whose voice he would most gladly listen to, responded that [he would most gladly hear] the voice of the one by whom his own glory was best celebrated. And so, in the same way, Marius esteemed Lucius Plotius, by whose talent he thought that those things which he had accomplished could be best celebrated.” (Cicero, Pro Archia 20)
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Slapp that Bitch Up
Christmas Eve 2017. As North Korea and the United States of America both threaten to take action against countries voting against them in the United Nations, Henley and Partners decide to do a bit of bullying of their own and attempt to silence the Shiftnews portal. Writing in the Shift today, the editorial team explains how letters threatening legal action were received by H&P in an attempt to silence them.
The peddlers of passports have taken offence at an article published in the Shift that reported what was already international news – “Henley and Partners involved in Grenada diplomatic passports scandal”. The article in fact quotes a number of other international sources that were already running the same story (see for example Caribbean News Now!). That is not the main point really.
The point is that Henley and Partners are not new to this business of using financial duress as a baton to beat critics of their operations into submission. Daphne Caruana Galizia had herself reported receiving a series of harassing and threatening letters from the legal representatives of Henley and Partners. Most of the local mainstream press has now openly admitted to succumbing to similar legal threats and to being obliged to remove articles covering the Pilatus bank scandal.
The SLAPP – strategic lawsuit against public participation – menace is a reality. Here is wikipedia’s definition:
“A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds that they impede freedom of speech.”
SLAPPs are yet another weapon in this era of post-truth that is available to those who would be more comfortable with the existence of multiple “alternate truths” from which to choose. A SLAPP lawsuit helps create a world where one particular version of the truth vanishes from circulation – not because it was untrue but because it became too expensive to assert.
One way to fight this assault on freedom of expression is to make it impossible for the SLAPP lawsuit to become effective. Each and every one of us can be part of this. Pick up the news that they want to suppress. Circulate it. Retweet it. Instagram it. Blog it. Facebook it. SLAPP that bitch up.
I stand with the ShiftNews Team and I am reproducing all the necessary links in this post. Better still I am attaching a PDF of the text of the post that Henley and Partners want to vanish… .download it and circulate it.
The ShiftNews on H&P (click to download PDF)
and a Merry Effing Christmas to you all at Henley!
[UPDATE] – You can now help TheShiftNews by donating directly on this link here.
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